A new study looked at the long-term prognosis of French people who were hospitalized between 2020 and 2022 for heart inflammation.
The people who suffered myocarditis after the COVID-19 vaccine had fewer cardiovascular complications a year and a half later than those who were hospitalized for heart disease due to other causes, according to a new study.
Myocarditis is a inflammation of the heart which can be mild or severe and usually occurs after a viral infection. It may cause chest pain, tachycardia, or difficulty breathing.
Previously, it was known that there is a relationship between vaccines against ARNm COVID-19 and a major risk of myocarditisespecially in young men, and that a COVID-19 infection can also cause inflammation of the heart.
However, the scientists of a group formed by the national health system and the medicines regulator of France They claim that their new study is the first to analyze the long term forecast of people 18 months after being hospitalized for the disease.
Published this week in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association‘the study analyzed all cases of myocarditis in France that resulted in hospitalization for people between 12 and 49 years between December 2020 and June 2022.
Of the more than 4,600 casesthe researchers found that around 550 patients had post-vaccine myocarditisalmost 300 had post-COVID-19 myocarditis and more than 3,700 had conventional myocarditis, that is, due to other causes.
The researchers found that patients who developed myocarditis after vaccination were less frequently readmitted to the hospital for other cardiovascular problems: 5.7% had complications at 18 months, compared to 13.2% who suffered complications after conventional myocarditis.
This was different from those developed myocarditis due to COVID-19 infectionwhich did not present a significant difference compared to those who suffered from the condition due to other causes.
“Post-vaccination myocarditis is similar to conventional myocarditis but with a more favorable prognosis,” said Mahmoud Zureik, epidemiologist and director of Epi-Phare, the group of French scientists that carried out the study.
“However, these patients still require monitoring and treatment for several months after the episode,” he told Euronews Health.
Two possible explanations for the study results
It was confirmed that patients with post-vaccine cardiac inflammation were more youths than those who suffered from myocarditis COVID-19 or for other reasons. They were also more frequently menthe researchers noted, in line with what was already known about the risk of post-vaccine myocarditis.
“It is possible that the vaccine cause less severe myocarditis or that we tend to hospitalize less serious cases because we have learned that the vaccine can cause myocarditis,” said Mahmoud Zureik.
Vaccination benefits outweigh any risks, regulators say
Reports on myocarditis as possible side effect rare COVID-19 vaccine first appeared in 2021.
It has been determined that the risk of this disease or pericarditiswhich is inflammation of the lining of the heart, is “very strange” and affects less than one in 10,000 people in the case of vaccines mRNA of Pfizer y Modern.
The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has stated that “the benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh any risks for most people”.
ADVERTISINGAn article published this year by experts from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) It added that available evidence showed that mRNA vaccination increased the risk of myocarditis, but at a “much lower level than the risk associated with COVID-19 infection.”
This reiterates that there is a “clear positive benefit/risk ratio for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines”they stated.
If you compare the number of people vaccinated in France with the number of myocarditis cases, Zureik added, the myocarditis rate is lowespecially since young people can still develop serious infections from COVID-19. However, it remains a “serious pathology,” she noted, and said it is rarely seen as an adverse effect of a medication.
“Vaccines of mRNA will be manufactured for indications other than COVID-19, such as flu or cancerso these results must be taken into account when there are new uses of mRNA vaccines, paying attention above all to the profile of the patients,” said the researcher.
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